Do we have what it takes?
Published 12:01 am Sunday, January 2, 2011
No matter the short-term state of affairs, Americans can consider 2011 a success if, a year from now, they can detect this much: a serious shift toward long-term responsibility — collectively and individually.
It won’t be easy. In fact, the amount of difficulty we’re willing
to take on will be an important gauge of how well we’ve done.
Avoidance is easy. We’ve proven that year after year. It will, however, be our undoing if we don’t resolve to change. Time is running out on nearly every important front.
We’re capable of doing what’s necessary to address what ails us most: getting our fiscal houses in order at all levels of government; taking more personal responsibility for the well-being of our communities, helping those who truly need it and lighting the path of knowledge and understanding for our children; and taking steps to improve our personal health — physical and financial.
Reconnecting with the best of our national ethos can get us there. Values of self-reliance, self-discipline, thrift, and building a better future were once cornerstones of the American character but have been fading gradually for decades. Under the prosperity we’ve enjoyed since the end of World War II, they’ve given way to a sense of entitlement, of living and spending for today without regard to the consequences tomorrow.
Some are being reintroduced to the old values by necessity. The first baby boomers will turn 65 this year, but haven’t saved nearly enough to retire. It turns out that hoping double-digit gains in the value of their homes would last forever didn’t qualify as good planning.
Younger workers still have time to make up lost ground, if they’ll commit to saving. It’s also not too late to commit to a healthier lifestyle that will make an enjoyable retirement much more likely. Whatever you need to work on — losing weight, improving stamina, quitting smoking — the sooner you start, the greater the benefits.
The same applies to government, where we face our greatest collective challenges.
Hard decisions lie ahead. A bipartisan commission has created a blueprint for beginning to reduce the federal deficit, and it was met with howls of protest. It will take courage and compromise on the part of the president and leaders of both parties in Congress to make meaningful headway, but it can be done if the problem is recognized as the national emergency it is.
Americans have made great sacrifices before. We just haven’t done so as a nation since World War II. The challenges we face now are surmountable, if we have what it takes to face them.
